Tim Cook

Six years ago today Steve Jobs introduced the iPad on stage in what was arguably one of the best product demos from Apple or any other tech company for that matter. The hype was tremendous but the demo was low key.

Jobs plainly explained why the iPad needed to exist and where Apple believed it fit between iPhones and Macs, then offered an almost hypnotizing demonstration of what using an iPad was like. Highlighting the intimacy of the tablet, Jobs demoed the iPad on stage while comfortably seated for a full 12 minutes. If you’ve never watched the demo or haven’t seen it lately, queue it up and see for yourself how much it stands out from nearly every other product introduction.

Six years in, the iPad has matured from a single product to a whole product line with multiple screen sizes, price points, and even accessories specific to the tablet. iPad sales peaked two years ago, though, and that peak’s clearly not temporary like many believe it is with the iPhone. Even with a whole new display size with the iPad Pro, Apple saw year-over-year declines with iPad sales last quarter.

So how exactly have iPad sales been changing over the years, what has Apple done to address the product category, and what opportunities remain for the tablet family?

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It’s earnings day for Apple and the company has just reported their official numbers for revenue, profit, and products sold during the holiday quarter. Remember that this quarter includes the bulk of iPhone 6s and 6s Plus sales, all iPad Pro and related accessory sales, Apple TV 4 sales, plus traffic from the busy holiday shopping season.

With that in mind, Apple reported $75.9b in revenue, $18.4b in profit, 74.8m iPhones sold, 16.1m iPads sold, and 5.3m Macs sold. Although the October through December period was probably a stacked quarter for Apple Watches sales, the company doesn’t break out category sales for that product for “competitive” reasons.

That compares to $51.5 billion in revenue, $11.1 billion in profit, 48m iPhones, 9.8m iPads, and 5.7m Macs reported in the previous quarter. During the same holiday quarter a year prior, Apple reported $74.6b in revenue, $18 billion in profit, 74.4m iPhones, 21.4m iPads, and 5.5m Macs for comparison. Analysts were predicting around $76.6b in revenue, 75m iPhones, 17.3m iPads, and 5.8m Macs.

Tim Cook had this to say:

“Our team delivered Apple’s biggest quarter ever, thanks to the world’s most innovative products and all-time record sales of iPhone, Apple Watch and Apple TV,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “The growth of our Services business accelerated during the quarter to produce record results, and our installed base recently crossed a major milestone of one billion active devices.”

Full press release after the break, and stick around for our earnings call live blog at the top of the hour:

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Tim Cook this week met with the European Commission’s antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager, Bloomberg reports and Kristin Huguet, a spokeswoman at Apple, confirms. The Cupertino based company is fighting back against contentions that they have formed a special agreement with Ireland in which they pay significantly lower taxes to the country’s government. The news also appears to coincide with Tim Cook’s announcement in launching an iOS development center in Italy.

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AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson is the latest to weigh in on the issue of data encryption policy with the executive telling The Wall Street Journal that Apple CEO Tim Cook and other tech execs should leave the decision making on encryption policy up to Congress:

“I don’t think it is Silicon Valley’s decision to make about whether encryption is the right thing to do. I understand Tim Cook’s decision, but I don’t think it’s his decision to make”… I personally think that this is an issue that should be decided by the American people and Congress, not by companies,”

…The AT&T chief said his own company has been unfairly singled out in the debate over access to data. “It is silliness to say there’s some kind of conspiracy between the U.S. government and AT&T,” he said, adding that the company turns over information only when accompanied by a warrant or court order.

That statement follows a meeting among Cook, other Silicon Valley executives and White House officials last week to discuss topics related to encryption policies and government access to data.

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California is now presenting a new bill that, if passed into law, would stop Apple from selling iPhones on its home turf, via ZDNet. The bill requires smartphone manufacturers to sell devices that have backdoors to allow them to be decrypted. Naturally, this affects iPhones which use high-strength security methods and make it practically impossible for anyone including Apple to gain access without the passcode. If this proposed bill sounds familiar, there’s a reason for that. A nearly identical proposition was made in New York state earlier in the month.

Although the bill is only being proposed and isn’t law at this time, it poses a big issue for Apple which is facing pressure from politicians across the US to relax its stance on privacy in favor of security. The California case is especially problematic given the location of Apple’s HQ. It would be very awkward if Apple was barred from selling iPhones in the state where they’re designed.

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The Super Bowl kicks off on February 7th at Levi’s Stadium, in close vicinity to the headquarters of major tech firms including Apple. Usually, the Super Bowl is funded by local government sponsorships. This year, tech companies are (at least partially) footing the bill. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple has contributed free products and equipment to the host committee and has explicitly declined any company or product marketing in exchange. Apple joins other tech companies like Alphabet, Yahoo, Seagate and HP in funding the proceedings — the Super Bowl committee has raised about $50 million in total from these firms.

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Apple’s strong position on privacy and encryption has been at odds with the United States government’s pressure to step up its national security efforts in the wake of recent terrorist attacks across the globe. In short, iPhones are encrypted to protect customer data from prying eyes, and law enforcement agencies believe that gives criminals a safe haven for communication that can’t be traced.

The Obama administration including the former and current attorney general and FBI director have strongly voiced opposition to Apple’s position, and Tim Cook reportedly pressed the White House to back strong encryption as recently as this week. So it’s no surprise that Tim Cook and Apple came up at the end of last night’s Republican presidential debate hosted by the Fox Business channel where at least one candidate was asked to address his position on the subject.

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A new bill proposed in New York could see that all phone manufacturers be required to implement a way for law enforcement agencies to access and decrypt user devices. This bill is somewhat similar to the Investigatory Powers Bill currently being debated in the UK, which Apple has voiced its opposition towards. Apple and Tim Cook have repeatedly stated that government agencies should not have any access to user devices or data, whether be through a built-in backdoor or other means.

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It’s no secret that former Florida governor Jeb Bush is a huge fan of his Apple Watch. Since the Apple Watch launched, the Republican presidential candidate has gone after the youth vote by showing off his Apple Watch and calling it a better option than Obamacare, despite labeling it unintuitive and power-hungry a few months later.

Jeb’s “iWatch,” as he often calls it, wasn’t dead earlier this week during an interview with the Des Moines Register’s editorial board, USA Today points out, as the presidential hopeful accidentally either placed or answered a phone call on it unknowingly. Jeb explained it away to the Iowa paper by declaring that he’d never had his “bat phone” turn on. Thankfully there’s video of this genuinely amusing moment.

And on the other side of the political aisle, Democratic Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi gave her own Apple Watch an equally entertaining product endorsement during President Obama’s State of the Union address last night …

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Last Friday, Tim Cook was among a handful of Silicon Valley officials who met with White House officials to discuss the use of technology and social media in fighting terrorism. The Intercept today reports that Tim Cook again took the stance of there being no backdoors in technology to allow access to user data and devices.

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According to a report from BuzzFeed News, a handful of tech executives are set to meet with White House officials to discuss measures that can be taken to prevent terror recruitment online. Apple CEO Tim Cook is among the tech executives that will participate in the meeting, which is set to take place in San Jose tomorrow, January 8th. Other companies that will be represented include Twitter, Facebook, Microsoft, and Google.

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Apple today made a new filing with the SEC in which it revealed the earnings of its top executives during 2015. In the filing it was revealed that CEO Tim Cook earned roughly $10.2 million during the 2015 year, which is a slight increase from the $9.2 million he earned in 2014. Cook’s salary was $1.7 million in 2015. Cook also has nearly 3.1 million Apple shares that have yet to vest, which at the end of 2015, were worth roughly $350 million.

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Update: Apple has decided to include the resolution, but recommends voting against it, arguing that its existing diversity policies cover appointments at all levels within the company.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has said that a resolution submitted by an Apple investor to accelerate diversity on the company’s board and among senior execs should be included in proxy materials sent to shareholders. Bloomberg reports that proposal was prompted by a conversation the shareholder had with his teenage son.

The proposal for an “accelerated recruitment policy” was submitted in September by Antonio Avian Maldonado II, who owns 645 Apple shares. He said he was spurred to act after looking at photos of the directors with his teenage son, who asked him why nearly everyone was white.

Apple rejected the proposal, stating that it was an attempt to micromanage recruitment. Apple told the SEC that it was actively trying to attract minorities but “has no power to ensure that its recruits will accept offers.” The SEC, however, does not accept Apple’s position …

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This may not be widely known, but it’s an interesting piece of history that’s now confirmed: Steve Jobs personally tried to recruit Kevin Lynch to Apple after the big Flash debate in 2010. Lynch, of course, was Adobe’s chief technology officer at the time and had just went head-to-head with Apple CEO Steve Jobs over Flash and iOS.

Apple later hired Lynch away from Adobe in 2013, giving him the title VP of Technology and a project that would later become the Apple Watch, a hire that was widely seen as a bizarre move. Tim Cook’s Apple hired the guy that Steve Jobs basically destroyed…

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Update: We’ve updated the 60 Minutes Apple episode via Vimeo at the bottom

As expected, this weekend’s episode of 60 Minutes on CBS was chockfull of Apple news and anecdotes. Retail chief Angela Ahrendts, design head Jony Ive, CEO Tim Cook, and many more all joined host Charlie Rose to discuss a wide range of topics, including encryption, terrorism, design, retail, and much more…

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Update: Mark Gurman breaks down what it all means here

Apple today announced a few leadership changes including a new COO and changes to App Store leadership. Jeff Williams, previously Senior Vice President Operations, is officially being promoted to Chief Operating Officer which is CEO Tim Cook’s old title. Williams, notably, has been heavily involved in the Apple Watch team as well as the open source ResearchKit initiative.

Phil Schiller, Apple’s Worldwide Marketing SVP, will add to his responsibilities the task of overseeing all the App Store leadership. The App Store change notably follows discontent from developers that the iPhone App Store has seen more focus than the Mac App Store, which key developers have left in recent months. The move officially acknowledges Schiller’s role as the face of the App Store going forward.

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Jared Harrell // BuzzFeed News

Following his RFK award acceptance speech last night, Tim Cook this evening made a surprise appearance at Apple’s new Upper East Side retail store in New York. Apple is set to kick off its Hour of Code program in all of its retail stores tomorrow, but the Upper East Side store held its first session today.

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Last week we learned that Tim Cook was set to receive the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights 2015 Ripple of Hope award, and last night the Apple CEO delivered his acceptance speech during the scheduled award ceremony. The RFK Center hasn’t yet posted video of last night’s event, but Bloomberg has shared excerpts of what it reports was a 12 minute speech across of a variety of political and social issues.

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Apple CEO Tim Cook is continuing his public support for equality with a video raising awareness for the Cerebral Palsy foundation.  The campaign ‘Just Say Hi’ encourages people to communicate and interact with people with disabilities in the same way as any other person; hence the ‘just say hi’ moniker.

In the clip, Cook uses Siri to ask how to start a conversation with someone who has a disability. Following the campaign, Siri replies: ‘It’s easy. Just say “hi”.’ You can try this on your iPhone or iPad as well. Siri will repeat the same thing.

Watch the video after the break …

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Early next month, the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organization will present Apple CEO Tim Cook with its 2015 Ripple of Hope Award honoring leaders in commitment to social change. Cook has described RFK as a personal hero on multiple occasions over the years.
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Back in September, Apple created a company in the Shanghai free-trade zone, hinting at its plans to launch its mobile payment solution Apple Pay in the country. Now, Dow Jones & WSJ report that Apple plans to launch Apple Pay in China by February. Apple has reportedly secured agreements with the four largest banks in China to support the platform.

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